Incredible that he doubled down on the possibility of Chinese funding infrastructure.
The US & Australia will be infuriated.
Dumb, dumb, dumb!
Luxon's election to lose.
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I don’t want NZ taking loan money from the CCP. Would be an absolutely crazy move, IMO. Seymour says he’d stop that move, has also said categorically that he won’t work with Winston First. These pronouncements will appeal to many voters on the right who won’t just agree with everything Luxon says out of knee-jerk tribalism. I predict ACT will do very well at this election.
Labour have been us well on the road to 3rd world status, but the solution is not to turn to the CCP.
Luxon has been painted into a corner by a Labour government keen to see him swallow as many dead rats as possible. The latest colossal dead rat is a $4.4 billion pay settlement for teachers. The PREFU will be interesting, will show how our finances are falling into a sinkhole while Labour continues to ramp up spending.
That's not a difficult prediction as they have been polling at above 10% for a long time.
The main reason they are polling so well is Luxon has no appeal.
The problem is that although Luxon has no charisma or integrity, Seymour is the dangerous one.
Seriously! Out of the blue claiming a $30Bln fiscal hole that no one in their right mind believes.
These two will need a handbrake & TOP imo are the best party to bring some balance to the mix.
Ilam is their best chance, the vote will be split given national and labour's poor performance.
Swallowing the American narrative (started in Trump era) whole about China infrastructure funding and the debt trap?
Suggest you enlighten yourself with what's really happening out there with the infrastructure upgrades in third world & developing countries before you swallow the American BS whole.
Like you swallowed Clueless Cindy's BS & Spin whole.
We're already too dependent on china.
Thankfully there has been some new trade deals to help us diversify, having china build simple roads for us like we're one of their African colonies would set us back.
Ardern.. Microsoft and Amazon come to NZ to set up data centres based on clean power.
Luxon.. China build for us a road using asphalt technology.
Labour in Opposition vs in government :
100,000 Kiwibuild homes (delivered less than 2,000 in govt)
Light Rail in Auckland to start within 1st term (tens of millions spent with not a single track laid)
No families to have to live in cars (380% increase)
Housing crisis to be solved (300% increase in state waiting list)
etc etc etc etc
Unbelievably short sighted, everything's wrong with it.
Just some countries experiences of China's funding infrastructure projects,
Rapid increase in Public Debt, lack of transparency & corruption, little care paid to environmental issues, use of poor quality materials resulting in infrastructure projects going awry & failing, countries saddled with staggeringly high interest rates, loans restructured with further loans resulting in debt cycles, loss of sovereignty, the list goes on.
If we would be so gullible you can't blame China for exploiting our stupidity.
Here's some worthwhile reading, also the section on related topic.
https://central.asia-news.com/en_GB/.../17/feature-01
Swallowing the American/Trump narrative whole?
How about viewing this for some perspective :
The Myth Of The Chinese Debt Trap In Africa - Bloomberg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-QD...ature=youtu.be
Open your eyes, read more and try to be objective - you will find a different world out there from the one-sided & one-eyed narrative about what's really happening in the world.
I was in Laos this year and after decades of being abandoned and ignored by the West (including Japan), it was actually uplifting to talk to the locals about how the last 5 years have seen the country boomed on the back of infrastructure funding by China - high speed rail link in the country all the way to China and soon, to Thailand and concrete (yes, concrete not tarred) roads opening up the country for development and progress.
The West prefers 3rd world countries & developing countries to continue to be backward so that they can be exploited to maintain the debt funded their living standards (especially US - 5% of the world's population using 20% of the world's goods and services).
As far as I know they said they would give pay rises in line with inflation. Not pay rises in excess of 14%.
So you think teachers should have been getting huge pay rises at a time when inflation was out for the count and lying flat on the canvas? No-one in the private sector was. Your narratives fall apart under close scrutiny.
We are on track to become the next Greece: public sector pay rises going through the roof while out on the private sector unemployment is on the rise.
The quality of Chinese roads is awesome. I worked in Bejing for a period (admittedly a few years ago) and noted how quality the roads were.